Nine Star Hegemon Body Arts

"This Lightning Lizard Beast is ours!"

A woman spoke from the ground of the Immortal Institute's disciples. She was tall, only a bit shorter than Long Chen, and her hair was tied back into a ponytail. She gave off both a beautiful and powerful air.

Even amongst female experts, this woman possessed a special firmness and experience. She was completely different from Mu Qingyun who possessed a leader's wisdom. This woman seemed wild and unruly in comparison, like someone who dared to fight and go all-out right from the start.

When Long Chen saw her, his heart shuddered. As soon as he looked at her, he thought of Qu Jianying. Even their eyes were a bit familiar.

As he thought of Qu Jianying's fall and the old man accompanying her, his eyes reddened. This Lightning Lizard Beast was originally very important to him, but as soon as he saw her and was reminded of Qu Jianying, he was in no mood to fight over it.

"Alright. You say it's yours, so it's yours." Long Chen nodded and turned around.

"Hold it!"

She suddenly spoke again, wanting to fight over this Lightning Lizard Beast because they had spent half a month preparing to take it down. They had been keeping an eye on its habits and were setting up a meticulous trap when he suddenly interfered.

Over a thousand people had spent so much time and effort, only for Long Chen to take the spoils. Even if his combat power was truly terrifying, she was unconvinced. That was especially true with the conflict between the God Institute and the Immortal Institute.

Yet, when Long Chen looked at her, she saw the pain in his eyes. Just that one look made her heart break.

"Miss, do you need something?" Long Chen paused but didn't look back.

"Have we met before?" she asked.

"No. But when I saw you, I thought of an old friend. So, your luck is good. I won't fight against you," said Long Chen, shaking his head.

"You're injured?" The woman noticed that one of Long Chen's hands was bleeding. Considering that he had just killed the Lightning Lizard Beast with that fist of his, it was normal for the terrifying backlash to injure him.

However, in truth, this wasn't the result of the backlash from the Lightning Lizard Beast but from activating his astral power in that instant. Using that power had caused his own fist to split open before hitting the Lightning Lizard Beast.

After ascending, he found that it wasn't the primal chaos bead that had changed in mysterious ways. Even the stars in his body had changed. They had started to evolve, and their power was no longer the power of mortal worlds. As for his body, it was still the body of a mortal man.

Just using a fraction of his new astral power was too much for his body to handle, resulting in his injury.

"It's just a superficial wound. If there's nothing else, I'll take my leave," said Long Chen emotionlessly.

He was a bit afraid to look at her, or more accurately her eyes that reminded him of Qu Jianying and the old man. Memories flickered through his mind. The memories of their care and help were now painful, too painful for him to dare to touch.

With Long Chen's current behavior, the woman no longer knew what to do. She wanted to fight for the Lightning Lizard Beast, but this appearance of his made her unwilling to take it all.

"I was hunting this Lightning Lizard Beast for its gall. It will help my big sister heal her wounds. If you are willing to share, I can give you corresponding compensation," she said after a moment's hesitation.

If this was just a normal hunt, she probably wouldn't fight over it. However, the Lightning Lizard Beast's gall was extremely important to her. Otherwise, she wouldn't have spent half a month preparing just to make sure that no accidents occurred. But that accident still occurred.

"It just so happens that I only want its Neidan and crystal core," said Long Chen.

"Good. We can split it up to avoid any resentment or grudge." She was happy to hear that. Although the Neidan and crystal core were extremely valuable, they weren't things that she urgently needed.

She immediately sent some disciples to begin breaking down the Lightning Lizard Beast's corpse. This was a meticulous task. Breaking one of its muscles or bone runes would use up some of the crystal core and Neidan's energy. In the worst case, it could trigger their power to explode, destroying the corpse. Thus, this work took a bit of time.

Long Chen found a rock in the distance to sit down. He then stared into the horizon, lost in thought. Li Cai and the others sat nearby but didn't dare to make a sound.

The woman looked at Long Chen. She finally couldn't endure it any longer and walked over, saying, "You seem strange. What's your name? Your cultivation base is so low, so how are you so powerful? And how did you end up becoming an instructor? You're not even wearing an instructor's robes."

Long Chen looked at her. She no longer appeared as stubborn and angry as before, so her gaze no longer looked similar to Qu Jianying's. Instead, she was looking at him inquisitively.

"Hey, why aren't you speaking? Even though the God Institute and the Immortal Institute aren't friends, saying a few words shouldn't pose such a difficulty, right?" She frowned when Long Chen just stared at her foolishly.

Long Chen smiled. This person really wasn't that similar to Qu Jianying. He was just too sensitive. Even after all this time, he had yet to resolve the knot in his heart. If this continued, it would be a problem for his future cultivation. He couldn't continue living in the past and had to look toward the future. Only by leaving the past in the past could he face his future.

"What are you smiling about?" she demanded.

Someone else would probably be embarrassed and bashful at being smiled at like this, but she was very blunt.

"It's nothing. You can call me Long San. They also call me third brother or third boss. What about you?" asked Long Chen.

"Long San? What a boorish name. Third boss? Are you not beaten all day in the God Institute with such a name?" She looked at him curiously.

"I'm indifferent to that. In any case, with my temper, I have to beat up others all the time if I don't want to be beaten." Long Chen shrugged.

"Interesting. I didn't expect that the God Institute would have someone that isn't so dislikeable." After saying that, she directly sat down beside Long Chen, placing her sword beside her.

"I am Luo Ning, fifth on the human-grade immortal rankings. You are new, right? We know everyone on the top fifty of the divine rankings, but we have no information on you."

"Our great instructor arrived at the academy while you were observing this place, so you didn't know what happened in the God Institute…" Li Cai excitedly interjected, only to shut up when Long Chen glanced at him.

Luo Ning looked at Long Chen, and then at Li Cai and the others, finding Long Chen to be more and more intriguing. Now, she truly wanted to know his origin.

At this time, the disciples finished breaking down the corpse. Long Chen obtained a perfect Neidan and crystal core filled with thunderforce runes, so he couldn't help but get excited. Perhaps Lei Linger would be able to wake up with this.

After obtaining what he wanted, Long Chen stood and said goodbye. However, when he was about to leave, Luo Ning suddenly spoke up once more.

"I'd advise you not to end up together with that Chu Kuang, because… I will sooner or later kill him."